Brian Inouye has spent most of his life around nitro race cars, washing parts, installing body panels, turning wrenches and eventually driving them.
Now comes the part the kid hanging around the Hirata Motorsports pit in the late 1990s probably wouldn’t have allowed himself to believe.
Inouye is going Top Fuel racing.
He will make his NHRA Top Fuel debut in Luigi Novelli’s Natural Machine Repair dragster at the NHRA Midwest Nationals, completing a journey that began when Inouye was 5 or 6 years old and tagging along with his father, Byron, and the Hirata family’s A/Fuel operation.
There was no grand plan to reach the professional ranks. Inouye figured the opportunities he already had were more than he could have reasonably expected.
Then Luigi Novelli and his team offered him another one.
“I never thought I’d have this opportunity to do it, but I’m thankful enough that Lou and Travis and all the guys, they had asked me earlier in the year if I’d be interested to get my license, upgrade my license from A/Fuel to Top Fuel,” Inouye said. “I driven A/Fuel, I think starting 2018 with The Hiratas. I did that for a few years. And then last five years I did the Nitro Chaos series, ran a front engine Top Fuel car. So really just this opportunity presented itself and I’m very lucky to have it.”
Inouye isn’t stepping into the new role without nitro experience.
He earned his Super Comp license at Frank Hawley’s Drag Racing School before upgrading to A/Fuel in Dr. Jerry Powell’s “Medicine Man” dragster in 2018. He eventually drove for the Hirata team, the same operation where he had grown up working and dreaming about someday sitting where Dave Hirata once sat.
Inouye later moved into front-engine Top Fuel competition through Nitro Chaos. That gave him experience with a blown nitro combination, but he isn’t pretending any of it makes stepping into a modern NHRA Top Fuel dragster routine.
“It’s one thing to drive an A/Fuel car and those are pretty serious, but driving a Top Fuel car, that’s the big show,” Inouye said.
The nerves aren’t rooted only in horsepower. For Inouye, there is also the responsibility of getting into somebody else’s race car and proving the faith placed in him wasn’t misplaced.
“I wouldn’t say it’s so much just the big show,” Inouye said. “It’s just the car itself and I don’t want to go out there and embarrass the guys or do anything to embarrass myself. So just, I guess, having all the T’s crossed, the I’s dotted and just go through and do everything procedurally correct.”
That sounds more like the longtime crewman than the rookie driver, and there’s a reason.
Inouye has always considered himself a crewman first. His mechanical background eventually carried into his professional life as a mechanical engineer, and years of working on race cars gave him an understanding of what they were doing before he ever strapped into one.
He’s also learned that nitro cars that are injected and blown aren’t as interchangeable as one might think.
Inouye described the difference between an A/Fuel dragster and the Top Fuel car as “apples and oranges.” The Top Fuel car never stops pulling.
That’s what changes this from a licensing progression into something considerably more personal.
“Just thankfulness,” Inouye said. “I mean, it’s a pretty awesome opportunity and I’ve actually worked on this car, this team a couple years now and I’ve known Lou pretty much my whole life. All these guys actually on the team, Travis, Cable, Mike, Ruble, I’ve known these guys since I was a kid.
“So this is really just a dream come true, not just driving the car, but working with these guys. They’re my heroes growing up. So I feel like it’s come full circle, honestly.”
There’s another familiar face in Inouye’s story.
Will Smith, who has also driven for Novelli, is one of Inouye’s closest friends and will serve as best man at his wedding. Inouye watched Smith gamble heavily on becoming a professional Top Fuel driver and eventually land an opportunity with SCAG Racing.
“Will and I are best friends,” Inouye said. “He’s actually going to be the best man at my wedding, but he put all the chips in the center to be a top fuel driver. So it’s just really cool to see the effort that he’s put in and what he’s placed on the line come to fruition.
“So it’s inspirational. It feels good that the universe righted itself and he got this scag opportunity because he truly deserves it.”
Smith’s path might make it tempting to wonder whether Inouye sees Novelli’s dragster as his own doorway toward something bigger.
He doesn’t.
For the kid who once washed parts and put body panels on an A/Fuel dragster just to be part of the deal, reaching an NHRA starting line in Top Fuel is already bigger than anything he planned.
“Honestly, I just take it one day at a time,” Inouye said. “I look at this opportunity that I have and for me, this is the end. I never thought I was going to get this opportunity.
“So for me, this is as good as it gets.”
